"I (Jesus) am the good shepherd. The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep."
John 10:11

Wednesday, November 14, 2007

Tennessee Volunteers #4

Hello all,Today has been a good day and a difficult day. What we witnessed the last two days, as we delivered food to non-believers was political persecution. Today, we witnessed first-hand the hardships of a people persecuted for their faith. But we saw something else too; brightness in the faces of the people we met that reflected the joy of knowing Jesus. This is not an exaggeration and we’re not trying to be “churchy” because it’s what you might be expecting to hear. It’s the truth. We delivered food, and you cannot imagine how much it is much needed, but as we visited with each family, what they hungered for most was for us to pray with them. Here is one example of how God knows us and anoints us for special times: we visited one home and the husband, although a believer, would not go to church with his wife. He said he did not like the cliques and the fact that the pastor had never visited him to see what his needs were or to teach him about Jesus. He talked about that at length. After several minutes of just listening, our translator asked P to pray. Just before he began to go to the Lord in prayer, the translator stopped him and said “are you a pastor?” The answer, of course, was “why yes, I am.” The translator, grinning from ear to ear told our friend “see here, a pastor has come to pray with you!” I wish you could all have seen the face of our new friend when he realized God had sent a pastor from so far away to ask him about his needs and to pray with him. God is never late in answering prayer or keeping His promises.

Because the needs here are unbelievably great, there is a limit on how much food each family can receive and those who received food today will likely not get more for quite a while. Pray as Elijah did for the widow in 1King 17:7-14, that the food they received today will not run out.